Re: Guix Days: Patch flow discussion

[Edouard Klein]

I, for one, would be willing to review patches, hoping that in turn my
patches would be reviewed instead of staying in limbo forever, which is
a drag on me submitting more patches.

Is there a procedure to follow, or do I just start replying "LGTM" to
patch email threads ?

Cheers,

Edouard.
Steve George <steve@futurile.net> writes:

> Hi,
>
> Our goal for the discussion:
>
>       How do we double the number of patches that are *reviewed* and
>       *applied* to Guix in the next six months?
>
> Patch flow is a pipeline, to change it we could:
>
> a. Increase the number of committers - more people to do the
> work
> b. Increase the efficiency of existing committers
> c. Open the gates by decreasing the quality expected from patches
>
> We essentially decided to focus our discussion on (b). We looked at
> things that 'hinder' and 'help' patch review:
>
>
> Hinders
> ========
>
> - All our patch reviewers are volunteers doing it in their spare time.
>
> - For a volunteer reviewing someone else's work is not very rewarding, most
>  would prefer to use that precious time to scratch their own itch.
>
> - Can feel like an Sisyphean task: no matter how many patches someone reviews
>  there are more, exacerbated by the number of Guix packages.
>
> - Sense of responsibility: the minute that a reviewer looks at the patch they
>  are now stuck with it
>
> - Repetitive and boring: often patches have minor issues, but it's the same
>  sorts of issues time and time again.
>
> - Risk of negative social interaction: having to tell someone that their patch
>   is incorrect, or that their contribution cannot be used is difficult and
>   draining. Some people felt it was better to say nothing, rather than to
>  respond to a patch.
>
>
> Helps
> ======
>
> This led us to the focus on the fact that **reviewing and applying
> patches can be different people**
>
> We looked for ideas to create more reviewers, make reviewing easier and
> more fun:
>
>
> - Share in the work
> --------------------
>
> 1. encourage new reviewers to step forward - making it more known that 
> reviewing
> patches helps to get them applied. Anyone can review patches.
>
> 2. create directed 'how-to' documentation for reviewing and connect it to QA 
> so
> that 'new reviewers' know what to do
>
> 3. create documentation about 'when' and 'how' it's appropriate to send a 'v2'
> version of a patch so that the QA system builds and accepts it. Sometimes,
> patches rot because non-committers don't want to be seen as 'stealing' 
> someone's
> work with a v2 patch - but making the small changes and resubmitting to QA is
> what is required.
>
> 4. Pay someone else to do it. Noted but out of scope.
> 5. Remove old packages overhead. Old untouched packages create mental 
> overhead,
> and make the task of maintaining the repository in a good state more 
> difficult.
> We could remove old 'untouched' packages and ones that no-longer compile. We
> have methods to hide and notify.
>
>
> - Make it more fun
> -------------------
>
> 1. do online sessions around reviews, some sprints or pairing - both social 
> and
> a way to spread skills
> 2. find ways to recognise and appreciate reviewers - 'reviewer of the month'
> 3. make it a game - we could have a 'Guix London' vs 'Guix Paris' leader board
> for reviews. Make it a group goal 'can we beat januarys reviews number'
> 4. create some graphs / leaderboard so we know how many patches are being
> reviewed and we can recognise the contribution
>
>
> - Automate it away
> -------------------
>
> 1. Chris is continuing to try and automate away the boring work - general
> agreement in the group that QA has made a lot of difference.
>
> 2. general discussion about create a 'guix review' command (Nix has one) which
> would download a branch with the appropriate patch and build it locally. This 
> is
> for instances where some adjustment is needed or to check a build. While this
> can be done today, it's a number of steps and quite involved.
>
>
> Agreed Actions
> ==============
>
> * [Chris]: continuing his work to improve QA automation. Implication was we'll
>  need some reports / graphs - but these were not discussed in detail.
>
> * [Futurile]: organise a **patch review online sessions**. To run every 13 
> days
>   (so it rotates through the week) - for 3 months to see if it has any 
> traction.
>   Co-ordinate with maintainers so that patches that are reviewed can be
>  committed
>
>
> Actions looking for someone - you?
> ====================================
>
> * Carry forward the 'guix review' command idea
>
> * Write an RFC and discuss the idea of removing older 'bit-rot' packages
>
> * write 'how-to' documentation for reviews and when it's socially
> acceptable to do a v2 patch. A checklist-like approach.
>
>
> If you were in the discussion and I've misrepresented your point, or forgotten
> an important aspect please please reply and correct me.
>
> Also, if you would like to help on any of the tasks please email back to the
> group so we can all co-ordinate.
>
> Finally, thank-you to everyone who came along and put their shared brain power
> to the task - look forward to doing some patch reviews together online in the
> coming weeks!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Steve/Futurile